Existing coal sampling devices tend to be large in size and stationary in nature. Typical coal sampling devices are mounted to a building's structural steel, and require between two and five floors of vertical space for their operation. An example of such a coal sampling device is given in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,161, which discloses a sampler that is located above moving railroad hopper cars. This sampling device is movable on a conveyer so that it can travel along with the moving hopper cars long enough to obtain a large sample. This sampling device is permanently mounted to the structural steel of a building, and requires at least two or three floors of vertical space.
Another coal sampling device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,929 (by Redding) in which a stationary coal sampling device drills vertically into a coal sample sitting in a truck to extract a core sample. The Redding device is quite large in that it requires five or six floors of vertical space for its operation.
Existing coal sampling devices also extract and crush a very large amount of coal, when only a small final sample is desired for analysis by a laboratory station. For example, the Redding coal sampling device crushes the entire sample that has been extracted from the coal truck. A portion of the coal is separated for analysis only after the entire core sample has been crushed. Since the entire sample is crushed, a very large coal crushing device is required, along with an associated, relatively large horsepower motor, to quickly and adequately crush the entire core sample. Since only a portion of the sample is ultimately required for laboratory analysis, this is a significant waste of electrical energy, as well as needlessly making the equipment much larger than necessary.
In addition, existing coal sampling devices are configured such that only their auger is placed over the coal truck or coal bin. The crusher and final sampling device are located elsewhere, and require a conveyor to transport the coal both to and from the crusher. Furthermore, the "rejected" coal not used in the final sample must also be conveyed back to the truck or to some other storage container.